‣ Plank Builders
From: Diditopia Games
Platforms: PC
Release: To be announced
Steam Page • Demo Video
Let's go back to those days as toddlers, when we wondered if our toys came to life when we weren't looking. Enter a kid's lavishly chaotic bedroom just as magical marbles float through the sunlight. One of them pops into a tiny monkey toy, bringing it to life. He grabs a nearby marble and hands it to another monkey toy. It comes to life as well! It's a good start, but there are 38 more monkeys to go.
And there's a catch. Almost all surfaces are instantly lethal to our monkeys. They can only traverse on wooden beams. Our original monkey gives build orders that its reanimated peers then dutifully complete, carrying and placing wooden planks to access new areas, more piles of planks, and the remainder of the monkeys.
Plank Builders is a third-person auto-builder platform game where you improvise creative ways to reach new areas. As you awaken toy monkeys, you spend points to unlock new skills, such as constructing towers or speeding up the monkeys. Use these skills and some creative planning to access new areas and reach all forty of your simian kin.
Best Demo Moment: Let's start building!
AIIG's Take: This game is very addictive because it is both zen and creative. Even landing on the wrong surface and 'dying' simply respawns you onto the last plank you traversed. Very soon, you'll be leaping and jumping across different plank routes, setting up various construction jobs for your growing legion of builders. Initially, it all feels a bit slow and clumsy. But once you understand the possibilities and skill tree, Plank Builders becomes a time killer.
The demo gives a really good sense of what the whole game is about, though, at the moment, the behaviour and path-finding of the monkeys need work. They sometimes get confused and struggle to handle more than one construction event, and as the head monkey, you often have to step in to reinforce routes or finish construction jobs.
But that's really the only major niggle with the demo, and the devs are luckily very receptive to feedback. Fix that, and it will be a fantastic game. Plank Builders was the final University project of the developer's two founders, and they figured they had something worth taking into prime time. They are totally right.
A release date for Plank Builders hasn't been announced yet.
Explore The Game with Youtube Chapters:
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